Award Winning Focaccia

Samin Nosrat's Ligurian Focaccia - addictive bread that's easy!

Yes, I won a first place at the Ventura County Fair with this. This is about the easiest bread recipe ever - there's no kneading, you use your hands for mixing, and it tastes amazing when it's done. All it takes is time (overnight). The recipe comes from Samin Nosrat's show and book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.  There's several versions of the recipe online, and there's also a clip of her Netflix show where she makes it, and a really good episode from Bon Appétit's video series.

Samin's recipe

Wet:

• 600 grams lukewarm water (2 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (a lot less than a packet)
• 15 grams of honey (about 2 1/2 tsp)

Dry:

• 800 grams AP flour (I'm using King Arthur, but I doubt it's critical for this.  You probably don't want to use bread flour). Weigh it don't measure it by volume, or the dough might be too wet or dry.
• 18 g Kosher salt (2 Tablespoons) (or 1 Tablespoon fine salt)
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil.

Brine:

• 1 1/2 tsp Kosher salt (5 grams)
• 1/3 cup warm water (80 grams)

Rosemary (optional) and flaky salt for sprinkling just before baking.

1. Mix the wet, and wait for bubbles. Mix the dry. Mix wet and dry to make a gloppy wet dough. 
2. Let rise in an oiled container for 12-14 hours. 
3. Pour dough into a well oiled half sheet pan. Make sure all surfaces are oily. Stretch to the corners with oiled hands and fingers repeatedly over about 30 minutes. 
4. Sprinkle with rosemary, if desired. Dimple the surface, pour on the brine. 
5. Proof for 45 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with large crystal salt (like Maldon). 
7. Bake at 450 with the pan on a pizza stone for 25-30 minutes, until bottom is browned. If top needs more browning, move up in the oven for 5-10 minutes.
8. Pour a few more tablespoons of oil on top and let soak in. 
9. Remove from pan and cool for 15-20 minutes. 
10. Eat it while it's warm.

There's really only one part of the recipe online that's a bit vague, and it has to do with the "cooking on a stone or turn a pan upside down" - If you've got a pizza stone in your oven, put the sheet pan with the bread on top of it (don't try to put the dough on the stone). If not, put another pan upside down when preheating, and put your bread pan on top of it. The important thing is that you need a heat storage to get plenty of heat to the bottom of the dough filled pan so the underside crisps up and browns nicely.

Plenty of Olive Oil

The key to this recipe is "plenty of olive oil" - You're going to need a fair amount beyond the 1/4 cup in the dough.  You need oil to cover your hands when you're mixing the really wet dough.  You need oil to coat the inside of the container the dough rises in. You need oil to pour in the sheet pan before spreading the dough. You need oil on your fingers so the dough doesn't stick to it. You need oil to pour on top of the bread before and after cooking.  Fear not - the bread does not come out like a greasy dough ball. It rises so much that just the crust is crisp and fried tasting.

I have made this with two different kinds of oil, both from Rancho Olivos (in Los Olivos, CA) - their Arbequina and their Italian Blend, and I don't know that there's a significant taste difference after cooking. They're both fairly mild flavored and they have that wonderful grassy smell when you're working with the dough.

Some pictures

Here's some pictures of the first part of the process - the two videos linked above show the essential "put it in the pan and stretch and poke it" part as well as the salt brine. It starts by mixing the dry ingredients (flour and salt), starting the yeast (warm water, honey), then mixing it all together with the oil.  I used a 8 quart Cambro container which works well for both the mixing and the overnight raise.

Dry ingredients

Yeast happily bubbling

The dough is very wet and gloppy.  Your hands work well for mixing. I'm sure people have been doing it with their hands for millenia. Some oil on your hands helps.

 
Ultimately, you're going to want to dump the dough into something else temporarily, then grease up the inside of your container, and dump the dough back in.  Put it somewhere warm (in July and August in Southern California, that's "leave it on the counter") overnight.  The recipe calls for 12-14 hours, so if you start the evening before, do the mixing, let it sit, make breakfast, then finish the proof and bake, it will be done for lunch time.  This rise is way more than doubling in volume, even though there's only 1/2 teaspoon of dry yeast (a packet is 2 1/4 teaspoons).

Starting rise

Finished rise the next morning

Then, you go through the process of oiling up your sheet pan (a raised rim half sheet pan 13x18") dumping in the dough, spreading it out (stretching it to the corners - it will shrink back, stretch it again for about 30 minutes). I sprinkle the chopped rosemary on at this point. Dimple it (see the video, it's not explainable), pour the brine on, then proof for 45 minutes.  Sprinkle on plenty of flaky salt (if you put the salt on earlier, it dissolves in the brine and dough and bake.

The final steps

Rotate the pan half way through (nobody has a perfectly even oven - you can see how mine is distinctly warmer on one of the long sides in the middle. When it looks done on top, pry up a corner to see if it's done on the bottom.  Pull it out, pour on some more oil, let it sit a bit, then turn it out on a cooling rack.







This was pretty easy, and it tastes awfully good, so I decided enter it in the Ventura County Fair in August 2019 - and it won in the Focaccia class.  I baked it early in the morning of the entry day, got it to the fairgrounds still warm, cut the required size piece, and left the rest with the ladies running the entry booth.